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Cabling Jobs for Small Businesses that Crave End-to-End Virtual IT

BY Joshua FeinbergFri Jun 12, 2009 at 12:51 PM
This blog is written by a member of our blogging community and expresses that member's views alone.
If you're trying to run your entire business just on revenue from cabling jobs and finding yourself scrambling to make ends meet, this is your wake-up call.

Looking for Cabling Jobs? Not So Fast! Most Small Businesses Need a More Complete Solution. This Article Shows You How to Deliver Small Business Virtual IT Services that Complement Your Basic Cabling Jobs.

Think about how you can expand your business to get great, long-term clients that will bring you real ongoing service revenue, and not just one-shot deal projects.

The truth is, if you base your business around just cabling jobs or quick fixes, you will attract customers that aren’t really looking for long-term relationships. And you’re going to need a ton of these little one-shot-deal projects to bring in the kind of money that will keep your business afloat. While Fortune 1000 giants might be able to handle these high-volume logistically-complicated operations, a small business using just one, two or three technicians to provide services will never be able to serve the number of clients per year necessary to keep the company afloat on just one-shot-deal customers.

The solution is usually to combine traditional cabling jobs with more complete Virtual IT solutions, so you can attract steady, high-paying clients that will help bring you sustainable service revenue. Plus you and your staff will get the satisfaction that comes from working on complex business problems with the same businesses on a regular basis.

Granted, some cabling firms eventually add-on router configuration, DSL installations, wireless networking, and Voice-over-IP phone systems. However those cabling firms with the greatest long-term vision grasp that small business owners want and need... even crave... end-to-end, soup-to-nuts outsourced Virtual IT solutions from a single point of contact.

Consider these 4 reasons why you and your small business clients need to work closely together on more than just plain-old cabling jobs.

  1. Small Businesses Want to Enjoy the Same Benefits as Fortune 1000 Companies.
    In a Fortune 1000 organization, the CIO or IT director is usually
    responsible for being the IT visionary.  This person will spot trends
    and keep projects on track.  This means that if you are providing
    merely cabling jobs to your small business clients, you need to rethink
    your strategy.  In the small business world, clients rely on their
    trusted technology provider to act as an IT visionary in the same way
    as an IT director, but on a much smaller budget.  This means you have
    to be a Virtual CIO providing all the oversight and maintenance
    services of a larger IT department but on an outsource basis. What's at
    stake if you don't choose this path? Your small business clients will
    find that single point of contact solution that inevitably already has
    a cabling firm partner.
  2. Small Businesses Crave a Single Point of Contact for Technology Support.
    Most small business owners won’t want to call multiple people to take
    care of their technology needs.  They don’t have the time or the
    budget.  Instead of someone to just do cabling jobs for them, another
    to purchase and provide hardware and software, and yet another to
    provide on-going maintenance for their networks and systems, they need
    a single point of contact for all their IT support.  This is why there
    is so much opportunity for you in the small business space if you
    choose to provide complete business solutions and not just quick
    installations.  Your clients want you to be the hardware provider,
    software reseller, network integrator, application developer, Web site
    designer and IT manager.  Your firm becomes the Virtual IT department
    for companies too small to hire their own full-time IT staff.  So what
    are you waiting for?  Start finding local specialists in your community
    with which to partner.
  3. Small Business Clients Are Non-Technical and Thus Naturally Inclined to Think of Price First.
    Most small business owners will think of technology as buying a bunch
    of PC’s and software at the lowest possible price.  Even the best
    clients might start out thinking this way, which is why you can’t be
    just a commodity broker providing cabling jobs to succeed in this
    space.  One of your basic responsibilities as a Virtual IT organization
    is educating clients on the real benefits of different solutions … in
    business terms.  Help them overcome price objections by showing them
    the value of planning, consistency, standardization, testing, training,
    on-going maintenance and regular re-evaluation of their needs.
  4. Make Your Clients See the Big Picture.
    Many small business owners will be inclined to make small impulse
    purchases for computer hardware, software and peripherals.  This
    piecemeal approach is usually very short-sighted.  Planning should be a
    normal part of their technology acquisition and implementation
    process.  Without proper planning, small business owners almost always
    make haphazard purchases that rarely work well together.

In this brief article, we looked at why simply providing cabling to small businesses isn't enough to satisfy clients' cravings for complete IT solutions.  Learn more about how you combine basic cabling jobs with high-margin outsourced small business Virtual IT services, so you can get great steady, high-paying clients now at - http://www.CablingJobsAdvice.com

Topics:

Technology, Leadership, Management, Careers, computer consultants, computer consulting, computer repair businesses, computer resellers, IT solution providers, managed services providers, network integrators, small business IT, smb, systems integrators, VARs, Business, Small Business, Consulting Services, Software and Services, Professional Services Sector


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